A Look Back At 2010-11 - A Trip To Rutgers

It's not what it used to be when Cappie Pondexter, Essence Carson, Kia Vaughn, Epiphanny Prince and the like were playing for the Scarlet Knights, but it's always an adventure when the UConn women go to Piscataway.

And what made the preliminaries interesting? Of course, another raging snowstorm.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Geno Auriemma knows it's never an easy night when he brings his UConn women to Rutgers. Auriemma knows a wise guy when he sees one. And the folks here manage to make him feel like a comic in a room full of hecklers. Then there's the matter of playing the Scarlet Knights. They can be a tough crowd, too. Remember that car spinning its wheels trying to climb the hill during one of the recent storms? That's usually the way it goes at the Louis Brown Athletic Center for UConn: tough sledding in front of a tough crowd. "Coach told the freshmen before the game what it would be like," Maya Moore said. "He told them that they'd have to grind it out." Of course, just because the going is tough doesn't mean the tough can't get going. And the No. 2 Huskies did it again. It just took longer than they may have liked. The Huskies turned an anxious three-point halftime lead into a big belly laugh with a dominating second half and beat the Scarlet Knights 63-44 before a sparse crowd of 4,703. UConn (19-1, 8-0 Big East) has won seven straight. The Huskies were led by Moore, who had 17 points and a season-high 16 rebounds, her third straight double-double and fifth of the season. Those last three double-doubles have come in the games UConn has played without freshman forward Samarie Walker, a strong rebounder who transferred to Kentucky. Tiffany Hayes led UConn with 18 points despite missing six minutes in the first half after getting poked in the eye. Rutgers (12-7, 5-1) had a five-game winning streak snapped. The Scarlet Knights were led by April Sykes, who scored 20 points. Moore and Hayes each scored five points in the 13-0 run that opened the second half. The Huskies went 4-for-5 in that stretch with threes from Moore, Bria Hartley (15 points) and Hayes. "We looked at each other and started to encourage each other," Moore said. "We came out of the locker room with confidence in each other and I think it showed in the way we played." UConn took its first 20-point lead (49-29) with 11:27 left on a Hayes layup. "They are what I'll call a quick-strike team," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "They are a venomous snake, they hit you and the nerves shut down. You can be right there in a game and they'll strike so fast." Still, this was not a pretty game for UConn, not even remotely attractive. This was a typical Rutgers game. Every movement seemed stunted, belabored and awkward. And once again, Hayes had to leave in the first minute, as she did against Louisville on Jan. 15 when she sustained a mild concussion. Her career habit of hitting the floor many times a night has not abated. This time, it appeared she was poked in the right eye by Rutgers' Erica Wheeler just 41 seconds into the game. She was examined on the bench and temporarily left it before reappearing with 11:49 to play in the half. "Yeah, I'd say Tiffany sometimes loses control of her bodily functions," Auriemma said. Hayes said she was given eyedrops to help numb the area. "They took me in the back and put some numbing drops in the right eye so I wouldn't feel the pain," Hayes said. "It lasted about 30 minutes, so I had to have more at halftime and then again after the game." This did not help the Huskies, who quickly adhered to the choppy pace. They led 25-22 at halftime even though their shooting touch was as cold as the night. UConn was 9-for-32 in the half and had eight turnovers. The 25 first-half points were a season low for the Huskies. "Offensive continuity comes from making shots," Auriemma said. "You run good stuff, make shots and everyone goes, 'Wow, your offense looks great.' You come out the way we did in the first half and the offense looks lousy." Sykes hit three early three-pointers and scored 11 of the Scarlet Knights' first 13 points. They, too, had shooting problems, although not as pronounced as UConn's; the Huskies shot 36.1 percent (22 of 61) for the game. UConn's condensed roster since the transfer of Walker has been a talking point. But Rutgers has been going through the same thing, particularly since losing guard Nikki Speed to a foot injury four games ago. Speed did not play Wednesday, costing Rutgers a player who had been averaging nearly 31 minutes and is second on the team in assists. The Huskies and Scarlet Knights came in as two of the three unbeaten teams in Big East play, along with DePaul. Rutgers' five-game conference winning streak was its best since 2007-08, one of the last times a regular season game between these rivals seemed to matter. "It's not like it used to be," Auriemma said. "There's nobody here to ask me questions to get me mad."